National Urban Indian Behavioral Health Awareness

The purpose of this Indian Health Service cooperative agreement is to further the awareness, visibility, advocacy, and education for behavioral health issues on a national scale and in the interest of improving urban Indian health care.

To be eligible for this "New/Competing Continuation Announcement" under this announcement, an applicant must: Be a national organization with at least ten years of experience providing representation, advocacy, awareness, and visibility of behavioral health issues related to urban Indian health care on a national scale. Competition for the one award included in this announcement is limited to national organizations with at least ten years of experience providing national awareness, visibility, advocacy, education and outreach related to urban Indian health care on a national scale. This limitation ensures that the awardee will have: (1) a national information-sharing infrastructure which will facilitate the timely exchange of information between Indian Health Service (IHS) and urban Indian organizations on a broad scale; (2) a national perspective on the needs of urban Indian communities that will ensure the information developed and disseminated through the projects is appropriate and useful and addresses the most pressing needs of urban Indian communities; and (3) established relationships with urban Indian organizations that will foster open and honest participation by urban Indian communities. Regional or local organizations will not have the mechanisms in place to conduct communication on a national level, nor will they have an accurate picture of the health care needs facing urban Indians nationwide. Organizations with less experience will lack the established relationships with urban Indian organizations throughout the country that will facilitate participation and the open and honest exchange of information between urban Indian organizations and IHS. With the limited funds available for these projects, IHS must ensure that the education and outreach efforts described in this announcement reach the widest audience possible in a timely fashion, are appropriately tailored to the needs of urban Indian communities throughout the country, and come from a source that urban Indians recognize and trust. For these reasons, this is a limited competition announcement.

Paul Gettys Grant Systems Coordinator Phone 301-443-2114